Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/18

The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) engages in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land and agrarian reform, rural governance and natural resource management. It is committed to social change that empowers the poor, builds democracy and enhances sustainable livelihoods.

News

For the latest news from PLAAS click here.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 604

At the crossroads: Land and agrarian reform in South Africa into the 21st century
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 1999) Cousins, Ben; Emmett, Natashiá; Campbell, Rosie; Heyns, Stephen
The land sector has always been characterised by lively and public arguments over policy, and some of the central and recurring themes of the previous five years of debate were expected to surface at the conference. One of these is whether or not the ANC has the political will to seek to radically alter agrarian power relations and the distribution of resources that underlies them. The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of 1994 called for a wide-ranging and redistributive land reform2, portrayed as the central driving force behind a large scale rural development programme. Since then the effective displacement of the RDP by the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy (GEAR) and the derisory budget for land reform since 1994/ 95 (never more than one percent of the total budget) have called this commitment into question. Is government s oft-repeated statement that it intends to eliminate rural poverty (most recently in President Mbeki s state of the nation address of February 2000) only a rhetorical gesture?
Women's access to land in the former Bantustans: Constitutional conflict, customary law, democratisation and the role of the state
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2000) Mann, Michelle
The transition to local democratic institutions in the former bantustans of South Africa will not in itself fulfill the constitutional imperative for the promotion of gender equality, specifically in relation to women's access to land. In order for the state to balance its competing constitutional obligations, it must undertake a programme of community education, consciousness-raising, and support for women's organisation at the grassroots level. This paper provides an overview of land tenure in the former bantustans, focusing on the access of rural women to this land. It examines the potential conflict between the constitutional recognition and protection of gender rights on the one hand and the recognition of customary law/ traditional leadership on the other, especially the adverse impact of customary law and traditional leadership on the access of rural women to land. It then examines state initiatives towards implementing local democratic institutions in these areas, and considers whether these initiatives are sufficient to fulfill the state's obligation to promote gender equality. The paper concludes that state support for community activism and community education can serve to balance the constitutional imperatives for gender equality and respect for traditional leaders and customary law. Such an approach would allow the community to be active participants in, and the drivers of their own development.
Land reform, sustainable rural livelihoods and gender relations: A case study of Gallawater A farm: Volume 2
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2000) Vetter, Susanne; Goqwana, Wiseman M; Bobo, Joseph; Marsh, Alan
There is an ongoing debate about the sustainability of South African communal rangelands as old views on overgrazing and degradation are being widely challenged. The degradation issue has recently received renewed attention in the light of land reform, as this is expected to lead to an increase in the area of South Africa which is held under some form of communal tenure. District-level data on vegetation and soil degradation (Hoffman et al. 1999) have shown that communal districts have significantly higher levels of soil erosion, and that communal and commercial districts experience very different vegetation changes under the same environmental conditions, even if livestock densities are similar. The implications of this for communal livestock farmers are still under debate, and the interrelationships between high human population density, high stocking rates, land degradation and people’s livelihoods need to be better understood for land reform to result in economically and ecologically sustainable land use. This case study of a land reform pilot project in the Eastern Cape focuses on the changes in the biophysical environment, particularly soils and vegetation, which are likely to result from the change of land tenure and land use on Gallawater A.
Land reform, sustainable rural livelihoods and gender relations: A case study of Gallawater A farm: Volume 1
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2000) Mokgope, Kgopotso
The research project aimed to investigate the impact of land reform processes on sustainable rural livelihoods and on gender relations in South Africa by examining a case study in the Eastern Cape province.
Why land invasions will happen here too .....
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2000) Cousins, Ben
Will Zimbabwean-style land invasions take place in South Africa at some point in the future? In my view – yes, it is likely that they will, despite the great differences between the political economies of the two countries. And as in Zimbabwe, land invasions organized by populist politicians will call attention to society’s failure to adequately address deepening rural poverty, and put a dramatic spotlight on the emotive issue of our highly unequal and racially skewed land distribution. This could result in land reform moving higher up the political agenda than it is at present.
At the crossroads: Land and agrarian reform in South Africa into the 21st century
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), and National Land Committee (NLC), 2000) Cousins, Ben
These conference proceedings are published at a time of extraordinary fluidity and uncertainty as to the future of the ambitious programmes of land and agrarian reform1 initiated by the first democratic government in 1994. A number of fundamental questions are currently being asked within the sector: What is the future of land and agrarian reform in South Africa in the 21st century? Some observers assert that the African National Congress (ANC) government has effectively jettisoned land reform, without actually announcing this decision to the world at large. If .agrarian questions., including but not limited to questions as to the nature and distribution of land rights, are seen as marginal by those holding state power, then what are the implications for rural people, for land activists, and for the politics of land and agriculture in democratic South Africa? Alternatively, will land and agrarian reform be re-oriented so that its central focus is the fostering of a class of small, medium and largescale black commercial farmers? If so, will government attempt to alleviate rural poverty primarily through welfare programmes and expanded social services rather than through the transfer of productive assets and support for wealth-creating productive activity? If at least some elements of land and agrarian reform continue to be oriented to the needs of the rural poor, what lessons from the first five years need to inform the design and implementation of more effective policies and programmes? These are challenging questions, but important ones to seek answers to. The papers in this collection may assist in such efforts, despite significant shifts in the political context between the early months of 1999, when the papers were written, and March 2000, as these proceedings go to press. The most obvious difference, of course, is the appointment of a new Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza (formerly Deputy Minister of Agriculture). However, the policy implications of this change in leadership are only just beginning to emerge, with the Minister announcing a major new policy thrust on 11 February 2000
Women's access to land in the former bantustans: Constitutional conflict, customary law, democratisation and the role of the state
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2000) Mann, Michelle
The transition to local democratic institutions in the former bantustans of South Africa will not in itself fulfil the constitutional imperative for the promotion of gender equality, specifically in relation to womenís access to land. In order for the state to balance its competing constitutional obligations, it must undertake a programme of community education, consciousness-raising, and support for womenís organisation at the grassroots level. This paper provides an overview of land tenure in the former bantustans, focusing on the access of rural women to this land. It examines the potential conflict between the constitutional recognition and protection of gender rights on the one hand and the recognition of customary law/ traditional leadership on the other, especially the adverse impact of customary law and traditional leadership on the access of rural women to land. It then examines state initiatives towards implementing local democratic institutions in these areas, and considers whether these initiatives are sufficient to fulfil the stateís obligation to promote gender equality. The paper concludes that state support for community activism and community education can serve to balance the constitutional imperatives for gender equality and respect for traditional leaders and customary law. Such an approach would allow the community to be active participants in, and the ëdriversí of their own development.
Constituting the commons in the new South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2000) Isaacs, Moenieba; Mohamed, Najma; Ntshona, Zolile; Turner, Stephen
This set of papers results from participation by staff members of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies in the eighth biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, held at Bloomington, Indiana, from 31 May to 4 June, 2000. We are grateful to IASCP for accepting our proposal for a panel on 'Constituting the commons in the new South Africa', at which these papers were presented. We are also grateful to Dr James Murombedzi and the Ford Foundation for their role in stimulating and funding our participation in the conference, and their support for work at PLAAS on community-based natural resource management. However, we take full responsibility for any inadequacies in these papers, and for the opinions expressed in them.
'It's all about money! Implementation of South Africaís new fisheries policy
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2001) Hersoug, Bjorn; Isaacs, Moenieba
This paper was originally written as part of an economics study commissioned by the Chief Directorate: Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). Since the 1994 ‘negotiated revolution’, South Africa’s fishing industry has been under pressure to ‘become transformed’, just like most other industries and administrative institutions. The broad goals of the new dispensation were gradually spelt out, starting with an initiative in late 1994 which led to the establishment of the Fisheries Policy Development Committee (FPDC), via a White Paper on fisheries policy in 1997, and finally on to the passing of new legislation at the end of 1998 ñ the Marine Living Resources Act (MLRA). Although the Act is clearly a compromise between the existing industry owners and the political representatives of previously disadvantaged groups, it nevertheless opened a considerable ‘action space’ by insisting on ‘the need to restructure the fishing industry to address historical imbalances and to achieve equity within all branches of the fishing industry’ (MLRA section 2(j)). And reform was urgently needed. Just like the rest of South African society, the fishing industry was extremely racially skewed in terms of ownership of existing vessels and factories, as well as the allocation of quotas and fishing rights (Hersoug 1998; Hersoug & Holm 2000). The same pattern applied to industry leadership and fisheries administration ñ it was predominantly white. However, after years of discussions and planning, the high hopes pinned on implementing the proposed reforms have not borne fruit. More than two years after having passed the new MLRA, there is a high level of confusion about what is expected of the established industry and what is possible (in terms of redistributing quotas and fishing rights) for the new prospective entrants. In spite of having produced the long-awaited new framework for fisheries, production is falling, distribution conflicts seem to be endemic, litigation is becoming more common and huge human as well as economic resources are being expended on all kinds of ‘rent-seeking’ behaviour. What went wrong and why?
Land reform in Namaqualand: Poverty alleviation, stepping stones and economic units
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2001) Rohde, R. F; Benjaminsen, T. A; Hoffman, M.T
This paper examines the consequences of land reform for communal livestock farmers in Namaqualand. It investigates the likely outcomes of recent commonage acquisitions and tenure reform in the former ëColoured Reservesí using case study material drawn from the Leliefontein communal area. In particular, we try to answer two questions about land reform in Namaqualand. The first is concerned with models of land management in both new and old common lands: what effect will the imposition of either a commercial or communal land management model have on twin objectives of poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability? We conclude that the commercial farming model is rarely appropriate in Namaqualandís communal areas and suggest that sustainable development is more likely under a flexible system which takes account of both the objectives of communal farmers and the constraints under which they operate. The second question explores the implications of recent policy shifts regarding the use of commonage as a ëstepping stoneí for emergent black commercial farmers. We ask if this is feasible in the Namaqualand context and conclude that present rates of grant are inadequate to provide incentives for emergent commercial farmers to move off the commons. The contradictions inherent in using the commons for both poverty alleviation and as a ëstepping stoneí are likely to result in a backward step reminiscent of the discredited ëeconomic unitsí policy.
Study of the incidence and nature of chronic poverty and development policy in South Africa: An overview
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2001) Aliber, Michael
The purpose of this study is fourfold: first, to summarise the current state of knowledge about chronic poverty in South Africa; second, to describe the range of existing governmental and civil society initiatives which address chronic poverty; third, to identify challenges to addressing chronic poverty in South Africa; and fourth, to identify themes for further research. For the purposes of this study, house- holds or individuals are understood to be in chronic poverty when their condition of poverty endures over a period of time. Different researchers propose different time periods as characteristic of chronic poverty (for example, six months, ten years); this is usually taken to mean that the household or individual remains beneath the poverty line for all or virtually all of this period. Alternatively, and perhaps more meaningfully, chronic poverty can be understood as the inability of households or individuals, perhaps for lack of opportunity, to better their circumstances over time or to sustain themselves through difficult times. Chronic poverty can be a function of an individual’s characteristics (for example, elderly, disabled), or of the environment (for example, sustained periods of high unemployment, landlessness), or of a combination of the two. Indeed, a common scenario in South Africa involves the coincidence of poor health, meagre education, and fractured families, on the one hand, with skewed resource distribution, inadequate infrastructure, and scarce employment opportunities, on the other. The combination is more than sufficient to trap many people in poverty. To date, there has been only one set of data collected in South Africa which allows an inter-temporal comparison among the same households. This is the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) which, as the name implies, covers only one of South Africa’s nine provinces. Because this data set and the analyses based upon it are unique, we discuss it at length. One of the important findings from the KIDS data is that 22 per cent of the 1 200 African households that were sur- veyed were poor in both 1993 and 1998. This represents about two thirds of all households that were poor in 1993, and one half of those that were poor in 1998, showing that at least half of those households that are poor, are chronically poor. Another interesting finding is that ‘ultra- poverty’ is not synonymous with chronic poverty. In other words, a household that is just below the poverty line in one period is no more likely to move above the poverty line in the next period than a household that started off much further below the poverty line. A key determinant of whether a household stays in poverty, escapes from poverty, or falls into poverty, is how that household fares in terms of employment. One of the surprising findings from the KIDS data set was the degree of employment volatility experienced by households. Notwithstanding the contribution of household income sources other than formal sector employment, employ- ment apparently makes the difference between survival and total destitution, but less commonly associated with the difference between being poor and not being poor. Income sources outside the formal sector may make the difference between survival and total destitution, but are less likely to determine whether an individual or household is poor or not. The KIDS-based studies as well as other poverty analyses allow us to identify groups especially likely to be chronically poor. These include rural households, households headed by women, households effectively headed by elderly people, and households headed by former (retrenched) farm workers. Over the next 10 years, however, AIDS orphans and households directly affected by AIDS will probably figure as the most prominent category of people trapped in chronic poverty.
Land Reform in South Africa: Is it meeting the challenge?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2001) Lahiff, Edward
As recent events at Brendell and elsewhere have demonstarted, land and landlessness remain critical issues in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper presents a brief overview of the key challenges facing land reform in the country today and suggests a number of ways in which the current reform program can be accelerated to fight poverty and inequality.
Sustainable development: What's land got to do with it?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2001) Turner, Stephen
Ahead of the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa is reviewing its plans and progress towards sustainable development. This paper argues that more attention needs to be given to land reform as a key component of sustainable development strategy. It raises a number of questions and concerns that need debate before and after the Summit.
Annual report 2000
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2001) PLAAS
The Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) focuses on the land restitution and redistribution programmes initiated by the post-apartheid democratic state; land tenure reform; emerging regimes of natural resource management; rural livelihoods and farm-household production systems; chronic poverty and rural development; and processes of institutional restructuring and reorientation in support of land and agrarian reform in South Africa. The main activities of PLAAS are research, support to national policy development, training, post-graduate teaching, commissioned evaluation studies, and advisory and facilitation services. The university’s mission statement commits it to ‘responding in critical and creative ways to the needs of a society in transition’, and to ‘helping build an equitable and dynamic society’– commitments taken very seriously by staff at PLAAS. The year 2000 saw our researchers beginning to engage with policy on land and local government reform in a more public manner than in the past (when they tended to do so in ‘backroom’ and advisory roles), and to adopt a more adversarial stance towards government.
'It is not easy to challenge a chief ': Lessons from Rakgwadi
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2001) Claasens, Aninka
When Thoko Didiza was appointed Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs in 1999, one of her earliest policy decisions was to stop work on the draft Land Rights Bill and to announce her intention to transfer the title of state land in communal areas to tribes.
Waking up from the dream: The pitfalls of 'fast-track' development on the Wild Coast
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2001) Kepe, Thembela
The main aim of this study was to explore the issues involved in reconciling the policy objectives of land reform, environmental conservation and the private sector profit-oriented rural development initiative in postapartheid South Africa. Rather than examining the conceptual framework of the projects being implemented, the study attempts to reveal shortcomings in the processes of development. The research was conducted in close collaboration with relevant departments, agencies and individuals driving processes of change in the area under consideration, although the independent nature of the work was not compromised.
Contested resources: Challenges to the governance of natural resources in Southern Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2002) Benjaminsen, Tor Arve
Papers from the International Symposium on ‘Contested Resources: Challenges to Governance of Natural Resources in Southern Africa. Emerging perspectives from Norwegian-Southern African collaborative research’ held at The University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, 18–20 October 2000
Land and agrarian reform in South Africa: A status report, 2002
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2002) Turner, Stephen; Cousins, Ben; Lahiff, Edward; Wisbourg, Poul
In 1994, South Africa started a new life as a democratic nation. It faced immense challenges. Multiple economic, social and political transformations were needed to overcome the legacy of colonialism and apartheid. The racially-driven history of the prosperous South African economy had marginalised the black majority from access to resources and productive opportunities, and deprived most of them of the right to build secure homes and livelihoods in the urban areas where the nation s wealth was concentrated.
Valuing the commons: Rural livelihoods and communal rangeland resources in the Maluti District, Eastern Cape
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2002) Ntshona, Zolile
The ‘hidden’ value of wild resources, trees and grazing resources on communal rangelands is often overlooked by conventional economic assessments, even though their contribution to people’s lives is enormous. There is growing interest in the role played by wild resources in rural people’s livelihoods.
Reforming communal land tenure in South Africa – why land titling is not the answer: Critical comments on the communal land rights bill, 2002
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2002) Cousins, Ben
The long-awaited draft Communal Land Rights Bill sets out government’s proposals to resolve urgent land tenure problems in the former ‘homeland’ areas, where most rural South Africans still live, and where land is registered in the name of the state. These problems derive from lack of adequate legal recognition of communal tenure systems, abuse by powerful elites, breakdown of the old permit-based system, and gender inequalities. They result in conflicting claims to land and bitter disputes over authority. Development efforts are severely constrained by lack of clarity on land rights, and the tensions that result. Tenure insecurity also results from the forced overcrowding of these areas under apartheid. This means that de facto rights often overlap and are in conflict.

Browse

Browsing by Issue Date

Results Per Page

Sort Options